Minimum speed guarantee

I’ve just had my fibre activated. On the website when you sign up to Superfast 2 it states you will get a minimum speed of 55mbps. The letter I received before I had my fibre activated states my minimum speed is 39.81mbps? Why is there this difference? Am I entitled to the discount since it is not at the 55mbps that is advertised on the website or is their a clause saying it could be lower that this??

Okay, so I'm not an advisor just an (increasingly disgruntled) subscriber. When you sign up for the service it should show you on the website, or come up with the sales advisor what they expect your connection speed to actually be.

If your connection speed is below the minimum speed guarentee then you have to use the mobile app to record your actual sync speed for 10 days in every period to get your discount.

*Increasingly disgruntled?* Well the problem here comes if your modem router is a bit flakey as mine is starting to look, and you find that first nothing will connect to the 2.4GHz band, and then after a couple of hours the router 2.4GHz band actually stops transmitting. Looking on the bright side if they can't deliver what they promise over an extended period we should be able to leave!

Interestingly I’ve studied the website. While the adverts state the minimum speed quite clearly as minimum of 25 Andria Superfast 1 and 55 for Superfast 2 in the main adverts I found elsewhere on the site it briefly mentions ‘or less’! Previously I was with talktalk on ‘normal’ fibre which had a sync speed of 40mbps. I’ve now signed up to Superfast 2 with Vodafone which is syncing at 42mbps - so I’m paying more for 2mbps faster! I’m in the setting up period so will have to see if this increases. If it doesn’t increase I wonder whether I’m better off changing to Superfast 1 as it doesn’t seem my line can support the higher Superfast 2 speeds which I thought would be reaching up to 78mbps.. I also wonder whether by changing to Superfast 1 I would get closer to the top speeds on this package since my line can clearly support this, while paying less or would I see a reduction in my sync speed by doing this?

So far I’m quite impressed with the router as I do find the wires and wireless speeds to be very comparable whereas with talktalk and sky I found the wireless to be around half the speed of the wired connection. Although I don’t have the boost option for my devices on the app - which was something I was quite keen on - does anybody know why?

@Stobbart I can understand why it's frustrating not having the speeds stated. However, it can take up to 10 days for reach a stable connection. If you're still having problems after this time period, please let us know and we can take a look for you.

I am a veteran of three Openreach fibre to the cabinet broadband resellers; EE, PlusNet and now Vodafone. You have to remember that most of the factors affecting performance are nothing to do with the reseller, they are all down to Openreach. Almost since I sarted my router has "synced" at the same rate - 75kbps down 20kbps up. The actual speed I have obtained has been limited by the Reseller. I immediately ditched the Vodafone router and reinstalled my TP-Link which was very straightforward. I started with a package that gave me 25 down 2 up with EE ( v poor). Currently with Vodafone the speed set is 65kbps down, 20kbps up, a little less than PlusNet - but I am still in my initial 10 day training period.

I liked the Geek factor with PlusNet, their great web site with all the statistics and settings. But once set up I rarely visited it, and the total cost (incl calls etc) was £16 a month more expensive than Vodafone.

I think the main difference is "contention" (the number of users sharing bandwidth). With Plusnet my "real world" speed rarely varied from around 60-70kbps. With Vodafone I note it is dipping to around 35kbps at peak times, suggesting that they are saving money by squeezing a few more users down the same broadband "pipe". This has had no real world effect on our use of the internet. I am a Dad with wife and 3 teenagers. Most evenings at peak times we will have two or three people streaming BBC iPlayer or Netflix - possibly with one of my lads playing an online game. No noticeable difference from Plusnet, so I am saving £190 a year from the move with no real world downside. I call that a win!

I need the Superfast2 product for the upload speed as my wife and I both use VPN connections from home with our work, and that definitely benefits from a fast upload speed. But to be honest I would have been quite happy with 35 down, 20 up if anybody did that.

I must say I do find the current router quite alright - I don’t seem to have much loss in speed over Wi-fi compared to wired which is impressive.

I had misread the Vodafone website and the bit I was reading is saying if your speed is under 55mbps or lower you’re entitled to a discount - I thought it was saying that your speed could be lower than this without a discount. I’m at my 10th day tomorrow and the sync speed remains at 42mbps so I presume the option for the discount will appear unless the sync speed increases. My son doesn’t seem to be constantly kicking off about his Xbox disconnecting which was my main reason for changing provider!

Do you have the Vodafone app and if you do - do you have a boost option on your connected devices. I don’t have this!!

No. I can't use the app because I have disconnected the Vodafone router. Unless you have 4 or more devices streaming video at once 45mbps will be masses. Line drops and latency are the main issue for gamers, so if that has improved it is a major result for you. I put my old router back because I had loads of settings (fixed IPs, parental controls etc) and the WiFi worked well. If the Vod router works for you then no need to change it.

You just lauch the app every day and it'll automatically apply the discount, you have to do nothing more. What may happen is; if your speed is slower than predicted you may get a call from tech to see if they can help you get it up to speed.